Volunteering At The DP World Tour Championship: The End Of An Era

Without question, this will be my last ever Blog reflecting my week working on the DP World Tour Championship. I did say the same thing last year and so not one of the many friends I have made at this event believed me tonight when I said my final goodbyes. Without exception, they all said "see you next year" but as today's final event of the season came to an end I have never been more certain that my decision is the right one.
Since the first moment I came here back in 2009 which was just prior to my formal retirement, I have enjoyed every single moment out on the golf course and witnessed many of my golfing idols at close quarters. Some are no longer idols - they don't deserve the accolade - which is a great shame but when you witness the throwing and breaking of clubs close up and the lack of personal discipline then a golfer can very quickly fall down my very own Premier League of idols and let me tell you, it is a long road back! Still at number one and very unlikely to be ever knocked off that pedestal is a certain Freddie Couples. Anybody who knows and understands golf will appreciate just why Freddie sits in such an exalted position.
Enough of the holier-than-thou attitude and back to the activities of today where I found myself going out on the course alongside Ross Fisher and Shane Lowry, both starting the day on -9 and needing to shoot incredibly low scores if they were to challenge for the DPWTC title. Well that is exactly what happened with Shane Lowry who set off like a greyhound out of a trap and I had the pleasure of watching him shoot the lowest score of the week, 63, with no less than 10 birdies! At one stage, it put him at the top of the leaderboard but ultimately, it was only good enough to get him second place and a pay packet circa 500,000 Euros. Not a bad pay day for 4 days work! Not only the golf was great to watch but so was the relationship between the two playing partners who clearly had a lot of respect for each other and chatted for most of the four hours on the course.
As is the case with most days, I had my usual embarrassing moment, this time with a bottle of water! The problem is as a Scorer is that your hands are full with the electronic scoring device, your two-way radio and your clipboard and paper. It makes it difficult to open a bottle but during the week, I have perfected the technique of gripping it between my upper thighs and unscrewing the top with my partially free right hand. It's worked a treat until today when the top came free but I mis-timed the release of thigh pressure and the water exploded all over the front of my shorts! It wasn't a pretty sight and clearly spectators who hadn't witnessed the malfunction thought I had had some kind of personal issue as the water ran down both legs and the wet stain spread across my shorts! I was so glad that they were black because once I had dried my legs, things didn't look quite as bad as I feared and it was a bonus that for the next two holes we were walking into the hot desert sun which acted like a hairdryer on my rather wet personal area! I blame Linda, my wife for today's incident because she has been sending me texts all week saying "drink more water"!
It has been a great tournament and the usual superb experience and I would encourage anyone with the slightest interest in golf to consider the volunteering role. Even better, try and make the DPWTC your first event. If anybody wants more details, simply e-mail me or contact me via Skipton Golf Club in North Yorkshire.
I could genuinely write and write pages yet but will call a halt and add a few more photos from Dubai. I hope that if you have read some of the content you have enjoyed it, but if you haven't yet learned to read then I hope that some of the accompanying photos have painted a picture of my week in the desert. Thank you and goodnight from Dubai.